Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone who seeks the truth!
Review: I've read several books with similar themes recently. This book floats to the top everytime. With clarity and focus, Conason makes his case. It's a brilliant indictment of neo-conservatives. If you've been wondering what the hell happened to America, this is where you'll find out.

Rating:
Summary: Not one copy...
Review: Was sold at my bookstore. For those of you unawear, bias does exist and to prove it ask yourself this: How was the coverage of Bush's nationalguard days treated differently from Kerry's bouts with the Swift boat Vets? Would the New York Times try to smear 260 Guardsmen if they turned on Bush? And last what do you think about many editors stating that they would not have even covered the story if it were'nt for cable news and blogers?

Maybe it's just common knowlege that the media veers right; that would explain the poor showing for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Solid & devastating expose of GOP with facts, not rhetoric
Review: I bought this book with high hopes after reading The Hunting of the President, which Conason coauthored with Gene Lyons, a fantastic book that puts the GOP campaign to destroy the Clintons under an electron microscope. My expectations for Big Lies were met and surpassed. This book is a brilliant, quick read that rips the bark off of so many GOP misdeeds, it must be read twice to be both believed and absorbed. I could have read Big Lies in one evening, but I was so busy taking notes, it took me three.

One of the best chapters in this book discusses John Ashcroft, our highly radical religious right attorney general, who frequently kneels down and is anoited with holy oil by his aging Pentecostal minister father, a ritual similar to the Old Testament kings of Israel. When he was about to be sworn in for the Senate in 1994, no holy oil was available, so his father used Crisco. As Conason says, Ashcroft is free to practice any religion he chooses, but why is the U.S. attorney general, a person who is sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, imitating the behavior of ancient Hebrew kings? Perhaps, like our president, he believes he was chosen by God to lead our country. Scary stuff. During Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, a whopping 42 of his former Senate colleagues voted against his confirmation. 42!

Conason goes on to blow the lid off of many Reagan myths perpetuated by the right, including his "fight" against terrorism, his deregulation of the Savings and Loan industry (which eventually cost taxpayers in excess of $1 trillion), and the many weapons that were sold to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war on Reagan's watch. (These same weapons that Hussein possessed, obtained from the U.S., were frequently cited as an argument for going to war with Iraq in 2003 - that he had chemical and biological weapons and that he had gassed his own people. Inconvenient to that argument by the GOP is that a great deal of this happened on Reagan and Bush Sr's. watch and that we did NOTHING about it at the time.)

Conason also details plenty of other misdeeds, a great deal of which can be effectively used against the GOP propaganda machine: 1. How Oliver North convinced Kuwait to release 17 Shi'ite terrorists (called the Dawa prisoners) in the late 1980s. The group responsible for the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in 1983 demanded their release. Hence, the template was established that the U.S. DOES negotiate with terrorists, and if you hit us hard enough (ala Lebanon), we will leave. 2. How Clinton was obsessed with Osama bin Laden, and how, pre 9-11, several former Reagan officials praised Clinton for his anti-terrorism efforts. 3. The myth of the liberal media and how Bush received significantly more editorial endorsements than did Gore in 2000 (Conason cites a study by Editor & Publisher).

These are just a few tidbits in a book that offers a stinging yet solid rebuke to people like Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and all the rest. But in lieu of rhetoric, Conason offers facts with the documentation to back it up.

One final note - as another reviewer for this book wrote, be warned - you will be outraged after reading this book. It doesn't offer the humor and laughs that Al Franken so effectively offers up in conjunction with facts in his bestseller, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Big Lies is worth six stars - read it, be outraged, and vote your conscience.

Rating:
Summary: "Big Lies" = "Big Scare"
Review: Joe Conason's "Big Lies.." is a must-read for any undecided voters and anyone needing plenty of readable examples of where the Bushies are taking our nation. His myth-busting approach to the Right-wing ideologues' religous mantras is a fast and intertaining read.
I was so inspired that I fired off two letters to local newspapers responding to individuals who rely too heavily on their "facts" from the mouthpiece for the Right -- Fox News.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Ok - I haven't read it, but I just finished "Banana Republicans". For anyone who really wants to know how the right took over in the US I highly recommend this book. The "liberal bias" that is supposedly in the media is not really bias, because most people ARE liberal, whether the conservatives want to admit it or not. Massive corporations have brainwashed the public through think tanks that conservatism is somehow good for America. Don't let the radical religious right and corporations tell you what's good for the country.
Liberalism is the true heart of America. CARING about your fellow man. Working for equality in the workplace, a clean environment, etc. How can anyone discount how beautiful these ideas are? American right wing politics have been an absolute disaster, and I can't wait for the PEOPLE to take back their country. This is the first time the republicans have controlled the house, senate, supreme court, and presidency since 1935. The reason? THEY DON'T REPRESENT THE PEOPLE!!!!